Tuesday during Holy Week, April 15, 2025
John 13, 21-33; 36-38
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant. One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him. Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or to give something to the poor. So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night. When he had left, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.” Peter said to him, “Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.”
Few actions reveal the infinite mercy in the Lord’s Heart than those involving Judas Iscariot. Several times before, during and after the Last Supper Jesus let Judas know that he was fully aware of his intention to betray him. Here, Jesus explicitly informs the Apostles that Judas will do this: “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” Judas could not have been unaware of this. He feared neither Jesus nor even his fellow Apostles in his grim determination to hand the Lord over to those who hated him. The Lord Jesus, for his part, offers Judas many chances to change his mind so that he will not sin, practically forcing him to give up his plan by revealing it, in his presence, to loyal men who will act against him if called upon to do so. But Jesus protects Judas (“What you are going to do, do quickly.”) even as he warns him that for the one who betrays him, “it were better for him, if that man had not been born” (Matthew 26, 24). The Lord so desperately desires that save us from sinning that he would do anything up to the point of using force to do this.
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once.” With the dismissal of Judas who goes to alert the chief priests, the Passion of our Lord begins. The Father is glorified by the obedience of his Son, “becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross” (Philippians 2, 8).
“Master, where are you going?” The Greek text has the word Kyrie, which means not “master” (in the sense of “teacher”) but “Lord” or “Sire”. Peter fears the Lord going where he cannot come for he knows that without the Lord he is nothing. His life has meaning only with Jesus. We should think of Peter speaking almost in a panic. “You will follow later.” The Lord refers both to Peter’s eventual death and also to his death, like his Lord’s, on a cross. “Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” This is better understood by a correct translation: Lord, why can I not follow you now? That is, Peter understood Jesus to be the King of Israel who would assume his throne in the next few days, and he most emphatically wanted to take part in the action. If Jesus departs now, as he says, then either this will not happen at all, or Peter will be left out of it. Sensing that perhaps the Lord will engage in battle with the forces of the chief priests or even with the Romans, Peter vows now to sit on the sidelines but to defend Jesus to the death.
Matthew 26, 35, following Peter’s protest: “And in like manner said all the disciples.” Jesus waited for the clamor to die down and then spoke so that everyone could hear him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.” Jesus does this not to shame Peter, but to warn the other Apostles: if Peter’s constancy was shaken, how much more that of the others, whose faith did not match his? It is a warning to all those who would come after, that it is easy to believe when things are going well, but when tribulation and even persecution comes, as it inevitably will, is our faith sufficient or lacking? Do we grow stronger in it or does it fall away?
No comments:
Post a Comment